I am back and hoping to post at least once a week. I have left my teaching position in public schools to work full time with my husband in our auto salvage business. However, I do wish to continue educating people through my blog.
My early posts have been about the origins of the progressive movement here in the United States. After learning much about its origins and motives, I began to wonder about the women's rights movement, its history, and its ties (if any) to the progressive movement. Guess what I found out. They are interlinked.
The origins of the women's movement came about over the right to vote. The fifteenth amendment of the United States Constitution clearly states in Section 1: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude --"
Notice that it states "citizens." Also, notice that it has no reference to sex. Men have an aggravating way of being literalists. If it doesn't say it specifically, then it doesn't grant the right. Let's look at the ninth amendment. It states, "The enumeration of the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." This means that even though not all rights are listed in the Bill of Rights rights are not limited to what is specifically named in the Constitution. Therefore, women have always had the right to vote. Unfortunately, the men in power were afraid of what independent minded women might do in the ballot box, so they worked to deny the right in violation of the Constitution.
The status quo in the late nineteenth century was that the primary occupation of a woman was to raise children and keep the household running while the husband worked to make the money, at least on the east coast. Women in the United States have always been on a more equal footing with men. Especially in the West where women worked side by side with their husbands on the farms they homesteaded. If the women didn't work, the family farm would fail. However, in the East the upper classes and upper-middle classes had taken on Victorian manners and expectations of women. A woman should be refined, run her household with class, and remain in her "sphere" to let the men make the decisions.
As with any new movement, men looked on the women's suffrage movement with skepticism. Many men in the East equated the right to vote with the downfall of morals in society. One prevailing argument was that if women were given the right to vote, the divorce rate would skyrocket, and women would begin having sex with every man who walked by (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)
Women argued that they had a unique view of issues and had something vital to offer the nation through the exercise of the right to vote. Progressives supported women's suffrage because many women in the East in favor of suffrage were also members of the temperance movement. This movement led to the failed experiment of prohibition where "moral" people who knew better than everyone else dictated what people could drink. Prohibition led to organized crime gaining a strangle hold on the black market for buying and selling alcohol. (Does any of this sound familiar with anything going on down Mexico way?) Racists in the East also argued in favor of women's suffrage. They believed that if the "lower" races of colored people could vote, then upstanding white women should be allowed to as well.
Western states did not seem to have a problem with allowing women to participate in the election process. Five western states passed legislation allowing women the right to vote by 1912. Eastern states began to grant women's suffrage in 1913. The year before the nineteenth amendment passed thirty-nine states had granted women at least partial participation in the election process.
The women's suffrage movement ended in 1920 with the passage of the nineteenth amendment of the Constitution which stated beyond any doubt that women have the right to vote. I know that I did not go into much detail in the fight itself. Especially the way women who were thrown in jail over suffrage were treated by their jailers. Their treatment was abhorrent.
Women's suffrage did not end some women's desires to have a completely equal playing field with men. Many progressive women were not satisfied and wanted more. The National Women's Party, which was founded in 1916, wanted the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment. From what I can infer about the women's rights movement, most of the women participating in this movement were members of the upper classes who had gone to college and been educated in the new social sciences. These women also had a great deal of time on their hands because they had servants to do their housework and shopping for them and could spend their time thinking about how they could change the world with their progressive ideas. Also, the removal of God from society, another progressive goal, had a great influence on the women's movement as well. (More on this in a later post.)
Now, don't get me wrong. I am glad that the nation in the early twentieth century finally acknowledged women's right to vote. I participate in elections every time they come around. However, the way the progressives latched on to this movement and began pushing for more rights for women is where the women's movement goes astray. The fourteenth amendment is an equal rights amendment, and women already have equal rights with men.
Next time I will show another movement that was big with progressive women, the Settlement House Movement.
Source:
Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey, Volume II: Since 1865. McGraw-Hill College, Boston, MA. 1999.
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